My name is Yuliia. I was born in a small town in Ukraine called Dniprodzerzhinsk. I’ve been interested in mathematics from childhood, so it wasn’t hard for me to decide what I wanted to do for a career.

I completed a master’s degree in Applied Mathematics at Dniprodzerzhinsk State Technical University. Once graduating I moved closer to the city and started my career as a Data Scientist at PrivatBank, the largest bank in Ukraine.

At PrivatBank I worked on a series of projects including marketing campaign optimizations, discovering new data sources; as well as working on a recommendation system of personalized offers for customers.

During my 3 years at PrivatBank, I realised AI’s potential and how it could help businesses around the world.

Why did you decide to join LoopMe?

I was interested in trying my hand at digital media, an industry which was new to me but one I wanted to learn more about. While I was interviewing at LoopMe I immediately felt it was a company where I could realize my potential and learn a lot.

However, the deciding factor was the opportunity to be directly involved in the development of LoopMe’s AI. Everyone I spoke to seemed really passionate about the product, so I was excited to start.

What’s your job role and day to day responsibilities?

I’m a Data Scientist in our Dnipro office. I helped design the device matching system (which Tom has spoken about before) and the device graph tool. Currently I’m working on creating and extending segments which allow us to determine who is going to respond most positively to any given campaign.

What has been your best moment at LoopMe?

The best moment at LoopMe has to be getting to know the team, both in the UK and the Ukraine. We have a great culture here, which is great when you’re working with your colleagues for 8 hours a day!

LoopMe’s New York team is excited to host our first annual SXNY (South by NY), a South by Southwest themed event.

We’re bringing the Tex Mex spirit of Austin to New York--guests should be prepared for authentic build-your-own taco stations and 140 agave-based spirits. The event will be held at Casa Neta, which showcases local art while serving up authentic Mexican dishes. What better way to network with some of the best in the advertising, ad tech and publishing industries than over a custom taco?

South by Southwest is a festival dedicated to the convergence of interactive, music and film--so we’re bringing a bit of that to our event. Get interactive with virtual reality headsets with dozens of games and make your own mini-movie with our gif booth, all while vibing out to our in-house DJ - DJ MFS.

They say keep Austin weird, so we’re keeping SXNY weird. What’s weirder than hearing about your future after a few (strong) margaritas? See what the cards hold in store for your future with our very own tarot card reader.

Can’t have fun without education, right? Our Regional VP Mike Schoelch will be giving a brief presentation for all our guests about exciting trends in AI and ad tech.

Guests will leave SXNY with our Survival Kit, filled with essentials to kick that hangover, along with some treats straight from Austin.

According to Nielsen, this year’s Super Bowl averaged 103.4 million TV viewers, but despite massive hype, this is a 7% loss in viewers from last year.

The fact is that TV is no longer a one-screen experience. Adobe insights found 47% of US internet users used a smartphone while watching TV, while 20% used a laptop and 14% a tablet.

While brands spent millions on their half-time Super Bowl ads, initial research shows little impact on consideration. Surveying agency, YouGov, compared brand consideration around the ads from early January to findings three days after the game. Five of the big ads saw statistically significant improvements in word-of-mouth buzz: the NFL, Avocados from Mexico, Skittles, T-Mobile and Bai. However, when it came to purchase consideration, none of them made a statistically significant gain.

This makes sense. Just after the Super Bowl game we surveyed over 2500 individuals, asking ‘Did you watch the Super Bowl half time ads?’. Respondents had the option to say Yes, No – I was on my phone / tablet, No – I was taking a comfort break or No – I wasn’t watching the Super Bowl.

Once removing those who didn’t watch the Super Bowl, 58% saw the half time ads on their TV. Tellingly, 27% were on their phone or tablet, and a further 15% took the opportunity to take a comfort break.

So, with over 40% of the surveyed audience uninterested in carefully created (and very expensive) TV spots, how can you ensure you reach the right audience?

LoopMe’s CEO, Stephen Upstone offers some tips: ‘Brands should ensure that their big Super Bowl activations are supported with cross-channel marketing to expand the reach of their TV buy, as this survey proves.’

‘Mobile is data-rich and a scalable solution, allowing brands to understand their consumers and create advertising which delivers measurable results beyond the immediate Super Bowl fan.’

LoopMe’s PurchaseLoop product moves the dial on brand metrics, using data and AI to optimize to brand awareness, consideration and purchase intent.

Pete O’Mara-Kane and Mike Schoelch have recently been promoted to GM International and Regional Vice-President respectively.

In a newly created role, Pete will be charged with managing LoopMe’s Sales and Client Service teams globally. Pete is focused on supporting training and progression internally, so LoopMe can continue to deliver world-class results and service for our clients.

Based from our London office, Pete joined LoopMe as VP Sales in 2014, having previously held roles at Millennial Media, BskyB and JCDecaux.

“As a business, our primary focus has always been delivering outstanding results for our customer first and foremost. This has built the platform for incredible growth in the last 4 years,” commented Pete. “The next exciting phase of progression will see our industry leading A.I. delivering deeper analytics and true attribution for advertisers, allowing them to ‘close the loop’ on their brand advertising."

Joining LoopMe from eBay as a Sales Director in 2015, Mike was one of LoopMe’s first employees in the USA. In 2017, Mike oversaw LoopMe’s sales team expansion and now takes up the role of Regional Vice-President in New York.

“Being a part of LoopMe’s US success and expansion has been extremely rewarding. We’re continuing to help the largest marketers maximize and deliver measurable brand outcomes. It’s only getting more exciting.”

Further promotions see Crystal Bert take the role of Sales Director and Kerry O’Dorisio move to Dallas as a Senior Account Executive to open a new office.

Congratulations to all! If you’re interested in joining LoopMe, check out out our open roles and apply here.

2018 is a big year for sports with the Winter Olympics, the World Cup and Ryder Cup all taking place and set to attract millions of viewers. This in mind, LoopMe hosted ‘Think Fast, Move Faster’ at ping-pong venue Bounce to educate and inform marketers.

The morning started off with a presentation by Misha Sher, Worldwide VP Sports & Entertainment at Mediacom on ‘Creating Sports Excellence’. Misha encouraged marketers to ask, how can we break through the noise and add value to consumers? He gave examples of sports brands who had done this well, such as Heineken with their #ShareTheSofa campaign that made people all over the world feel like they were part of something.

Most importantly, when creating powerful sports marketing you should ask – Is it unstoppable? Would people choose to watch this and is it original?

Mobile and emerging technology

We then moved on to our first fireside chat, where Dee Frew, from the IAB UK interviewed Maggie Oswald , Senior Account Director at UM Worldwide on her experiences on working with FitBit.

Maggie explained how their research found the majority of consumers are researching on their phone and then go on to buy in-store. As a result, their creative is focused on awareness and engagement, as seen in the one LoopMe built.

Creative Director at R/GA, Ciaran McCarthy, then spoke to the audience about his experience working with on the ‘The Game before the Game’ campaign by Beats which first aired in 2014. The campaign went on to win numerous awards including a Gold Lion at Cannes.

He made an interesting point that one of the reasons why the campaign was so successful is because of the use of influencers and also observed that a 4-minute video was unlikely to work now, given that mobile adoption has rocketed in the last few years.

LoopMe’s Alex Hinds expanded on this in his keynote, highlighting that throughout the history of sports marketing, video has remained a constant feature due to its emotive power.

We rounded off the morning with a panel discussion moderated by Nicola Kemp from Campaign. Nicola interviewed Ryan Skeggs, of GiveMeSport, Linsdey Eckhouse of the NFL and Loic Dalle of Two Circles. Data driven marketing was a core focus, with all panellist agreeing that the use of big data effectively can unearth a wide range of possibilities for marketers, such as an increased understanding of the touch points a consumer interacts with the brand.

They warned about the danger of pigeon holing consumers into stereotypes, and said that in this day and age, every brand should know who their audience is and how to reach them but that sports brands have been late to the game in this adoption.

For more data and insights, download your free Sports Marketing one pager here.

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Thanks again to our brilliant speakers for their insights, we hope to see you all at another event soon!

I was born in New York then moved to Amsterdam, Hong Kong, Madrid, Copenhagen and finally London, but I consider myself a born and bred Londoner. After finishing my degree in languages from at University of Exeter, I went to Canada for a year to ski.

When I came back to London I decided that there was a good career to be had in removals, so decided to try my hand at that for a while. When I realised the career progression was not quite what I thought, I changed to the world of media!

Why did you join LoopMe?

I joined LoopMe as employee number 1 or 2, (there’s some debate as to who started first). Back then LoopMe looked very different; we used to work in Stephen’s garden shed.

The ‘younger me’ regrets not doing something more maths related at University, so finding LoopMe was a bit of a blessing as it was a job which my degree may not have allowed me to do at a larger company.

What’s your job role and day to day responsibilities?

I’ve just celebrated 5 years at LoopMe, after starting as an Account Manager. I gradually transitioned into a Technical Account Manager and now I’m a Product Manager. My main responsibilities are ensuring that LoopMe’s software is continually being developed to keep up to date with the market and client requirements.

What’s been your favorite moment at LoopMe so far?

I’ve had a lot of fantastic memories since I’ve been at LoopMe, but the most memorable is probably LoopMe’s 5th anniversary where we had a companywide away day. I can’t discuss much more than that.

According to Forbes, the most valuable sporting event in the world is the Super Bowl, worth approximately $663 million. This is $244 million more than the Summer Olympics Games, while the Winter Olympics completes the top 3.

Interestingly, the UEFA Champions League is the only specifically European based event that makes the top 10.

‘Moment marketing’, which delivers advertising at a specific time is most common around sports events. 61% of digital brand marketers said that they used sports events to trigger digital campaigns.

But far from sticking to TV and the traditional 30-second spot, sports marketers are turning to different platforms and devices to distribute their video content.

What does this mean?

With the Winter Olympics, the World Cup and the Champions League all taking place in 2018, this event will help you plan ahead.

In this jam-packed agenda we’ll be ‘bouncing’ through the following:

- Case studies of effective sports marketing

- How to harness data for targeted & effective marketing

- What brands can do to stand out in a highly cluttered sports sponsorship environment

In this month’s employee spotlight we talk to Sarah Shepard, a Sales Director based in our French office in the heart of Paris.

Tell us a bit about yourself.

I‘m from South Africa originally, I was born in Cape Town and grew up in Johannesburg. When I was younger, I dreamed of travelling, learning and immersing myself in different cultures. So, after I completed my Bachelor’s degree in Media Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand I packed my bags and hopped on a plane to France. I completed my Master’s degree in Management of media enterprises in Marseilles and then moved to Paris for an internship in advertising where I have been ever since.

Why did you decide to join LoopMe?

I joined LoopMe from another company in the adtech world. Firstly, I was excited to join a start-up, especially one which had just opened in the French market. I was also keen to learn more about programmatic advertising.

LoopMe were offering different solutions that I hadn’t seen before in the market, which highlighted the innovative culture and it was something I wanted to be a part of.

What’s your job role and day to day responsibilities?

My job role is as Sales Director and I look after several of our biggest agency groups.

We're a small (but mighty!) team, made up of three sales executives and we each have a specific portfolio that we look after. We predominantly work with the mobile, video and programmatic teams, as well as historically TV buyers.

One of the challenges in France is how to educate our clients on the evolution from media planning to audience planning and helping them to understand how data and AI can aid this.

What’s been your favourite moment at LoopMe so far?

The most memorable moment for me would have to be attending Cannes Lion Festival for the first time this year. It was a brilliant experience and our clients also seemed to have a great time, with the marketing team hosting a series of events for them. LoopMe certainly knows how to entertain clients!

The Deloitte Technology Fast 500™ EMEA program is an objective industry ranking that recognizes the fastest-growing technology companies in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) during the past four years.

The program is supported by the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 initiatives, which rank high-growth technology companies by location or specifically defined geographic area.

Now in its seventeenth year, the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 program includes regional rankings for North America and Asia-Pacific as well as EMEA. Check out the full shortlist here.

‘This is a fantastic way to round off 2017, and we’re delighted to have been ranked so highly,’ commented LoopMe CEO and Co-Founder, Stephen Upstone. 'Congratulations again to our team, who have worked hard to develop AI driven products that meet marketer needs.'

Much has changed in the 4 years since the last Winter Olympics, so why keep your advertising the same? The Sochi Olympics broke records with a total of 3.3 billion streaming minutes; but with mobile streaming on the rise, now is the time to move your advertising efforts to mobile.

Time spent watching TV is on a steady decrease, with a drop of viewership dropping by roughly 30 minutes.

According to GeoMarketing, in 2014 average time spent on mobile per day by US adults rose from 2 hours and 37 minutes to a projected 3 hours and 23 minutes in 2018.

56% of viewers choose streaming because it allows them to watch the events live while they happen, while 50% choose streaming due to the convenience of on demand.

Even when a viewer isn’t streaming on mobile, they’re still using their mobile devices. While viewing, 59% are using their smartphone and 47% are using their tablet.

Approximately 30 million Americans watched NBC’s coverage of the Olympics opening event. Many viewers choose to watch the event at the bar but still, 81% of Americans spend time looking at their phones while dining out.

These stats will also be useful when considering your advertising strategy for the upcoming World Cup and other major sporting events.